Hi, I'm really not sure how far you got with this, or if indeed you managed to resolve it. After almost 10 solid hours of trouble shooting, I discovered like some other noted posts that this is a permissions issue. I did not have File Vault activated and after going around in circles (with fix permissions, reinstalling, restarting safe/normal modes) ended up in the user/library/application support/adobe folder.

This solution should work for any one who has had previous CS installations. When I navigated to the aforementioned section (User/Library/Application Support/Adobe Folder/Dreamweaver CS5) I found that the Dreamweaver CS5 folder was empty. I then threw it to the trash and duplicated the 'Dreamweaver CS4' folder and renamed it 'Dreamweaver CS5'. This subsequently worked like a charm, so my diagnosis is that this is a problem emanating directly with the installation and not current configurations such as File Vault. Coincidently, my Flash CS5 launched but had issues when inside the app - like writing script. I repeated the same solution and hey! it was like I had the adobe developers right in the room with me.

NOTE: You need to navigate to your username Library and not your hard drive Library.

Good Luck!

Mac OS X 10.6.3

Hey Guys,

I have Snow Leopard 10.6.4 and Adobe CS5 Creative Suite and I tried everything from reinstalling, backing up from Time Machine and permissions and nothing worked. I used the solution above and it worked perfectly. Just delete your Dreamweaver CS5 folder, regardless if it has anything in it or not. Take the Dreamweaver CS4 folder and duplicate it in the same directory and rename it to Dreamweaver CS5 and it works perfect, no reboot. Takes 10 seconds. Good luck!

I don't know if changing the permissions had anything to do with it before doing this, but I'd try that too, just in case I got lucky. Sorry guys, I know it sucks and I feel your pain.

For the record I am running 10.6.3 on a MacBookPro with the most uptodate version of CS5. I never had FileVault enabled.

I found that when I logged in as new user I was able top open DW. Armed with that information and the process of elimination 5000 I was able to find that the problem for me was with ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Dreamweaver CS5

How I got there:

open terminal.

Test Preferences Folder

sudo mv ~/Library/Preferences ~/Library/Preferences.old

Tried top open DW no go so then I undid what I had done

sudo rm -R ~/Library/Preferences

sudo mv -R ~/Library/Preferences.old ~/Library/Preferences

You have to do this fast otherwise open apps or the finder will recreate the preferences folder.

DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE ZIP FILE FROM THE POSTER "NETFED1234" [Moderator: unless you are using an ACER PC]

The issue was DW with Mac OS/X. [content edited] expects you to download a .zip file, open it, and by chance run a .exe file that an easily compromise your system if your running a virtual machine.

I've reported this post and Adobe has not taken it down. [Deleted by moderator]

[Moderator's note: Netfed1234 made it clear that the patch was for Acer PCs. It does not apply to any other make of computer. The incompatibility between Acer security software and Dreamweaver is a known issue. See http://forums.adobe.com/thread/417116.]

Every time you follow a link to an external site it is your own responsibility to verify the reliability of the place where you are going and see for yourself whether you want to install software. Even the ToS explicitly say so.

Deep links to downloads are perfectly acceptable and are no reason for removal.

Deep links to downloads are usually not the best. Try not to link to an executable, but link to a download page that has the executable, the Release Notes and the rest of the documentation.

If you feel a post requires moderator attention, use the "Report abuse" link and file a detailed report (in max. 255 characters). Don't say "Link to a possible virus" because if the virusscanner of the moderator doesn't detect anything that is not a good enough reason to remove a link (see point 1). If you report "Symantec update m28 detects the MyDoom.m virus" a moderator can at least try to verify the claim.

If you require any further clarification on the moderation of external links please post in the Forum comments forum or if you wish to claim certain links should be removed you now know how to report them.

Im having exactly the same issue, Dreamweaver starts and only displays the apple icon and 'Dreamweaver' menu from which I can either hide it or quit.

I don't think this issue is just limited to FileVault as I don't use it and still have the issue, what's more Dreamweaver CS5 was working fine for some time but this is the first time I have tried to use it this month so I'm guessing that it could be related to some OSx updates, though why nothing else has been affected only Dreamweaver!

Note: None of the above solutions worked for me, except logging in as a different user. I tried repairing permissions, rebooting etc.. then I went to the DW support page on adobe.com. They had this message:

It worked for me. I think the problem was caused by running CCleaner which deleted the wrong registry key. Bad CCleaner! Be careful running those "helpful" system cleaners, folks. They can royally screw up a computer if you trust them too far.

Problems with Network Home folders and FileVault home folders seem to stem from the same cause. The same cause that was in fact in the older versions of CS or Dreamweaver too.

Telltale signs are the Welcome pane not displaying anything, or display old information.

The problem is with the personal configuration folder.

When there is no folder in a users' home folder, Dreamweaver will attempt to copy this folder on first launch.

This seems to fail on some specific files when it is copying to either a Network Home or a FileVault home folder, resulting in an incomplete Configuration folder, or one that has messed up permissions.

The solution I found is:

1. Create a new local user, then login as that user.

2. Launch Dreamweaver.

3. Quit Dreamweaver.

4. Take a copy of the Configuration folder from this user's home, putting it in Shared, for example, so it is accessible from your problem account:

My program had been working fine for months and then suddenly yesterday wouldn't work. The icon would stay in the dock and there was a light under it implying that it was on and working, but I was unable to access anything in the program beyond that point.

This may or may not be obvious to some of you, so I will say it if you are having the same problem and have tried everything mentioned on the forum, but have not contacted tech support or anything like that... before you do anything: update Dreamweaver. I had tried everything mentioned on the forum, was about to uninstall and reinstall, then went to FAQ for Dreamweaver CS5, downloaded the update, and it worked perfectly.

It seems obvious, but I was under the assumption (as a person who updates every week) that all my updates were current. Just make sure, before you go into ALL THIS forum skimming that you have the most current update for Dreamweaver.

Hopefully this will help some of you.. yes, something as simple as not updating can keep a program from working. I sincerely hope that your problem's fix is as simple as all this.

I wish I would have seen this post or been warned about this problem by Adobe when I bought the programs. I would not have spent days erasing and replacing every cs5 program trying to solve the problem. I don't know for sure exactly what I did or if it will work for you all but dreamweaver now opens perfectly on my mac book pro and I still have file vault active.

I began by opening file vault and clicking to turn it off. I didnt know it would take 35 minutes so as soon as it started I clicked cancel because I didnt feel like waiting. Once the computer restarted, dreamweaver opened fine. It had not opened for me in weeks and was a royal pain causing me not to be able to complete my school work or web designs unless I used someone els's computer. I can only hope that will work if it ever has a problem again!

Startup problems like this can have other causes as well, for both Mac and Windows users. For example, the "configuration" folder may contain corrupted files or could have permissions problems (both of these are mentioned in this thread). This document contains details for resetting the configuration:

I installed InDesign CS5 for Mac two days ago and then Dreamweaver wouldn't work. I tried all of the suggestions in this thread and the only one that worked was when I created a new user account. I did NOT have FV on.

I had the same issue. iMac Intel Core 2 Duo, 3.06 GHz, OSX SnowLeopard. All other apps in the CS5 Creative Suite Premium work fine, but DW won't show the splash screen. Tried playing with read/write permissions like described elsewhere. Not running File Vault.Tried reinstalling just DW, no luck. Tried reinstalling the whole suite, no luck. Tried running from a new account, no problem, but that doesn't help...

Solution: I used the uninstall applet and selected the remove preferences option at the bottom of the pick list (when choosing which apps to uninstall from CS 5). Uninstalled, reinstalled.

DW now works like the others...for now. (until the next Mac update causes havoc.)

I had the same problem. I had upgraded to a new machine with Lion pre-installed. I installed my CS5 applications and everything worked except for Dreamweaver. I read over all of the posts and a lot of the posts had said it was a permission problem. I repaired my premissions and downloaded the lastest update for Dreamweaver CS5. I restarted my machine and now Dreamweaver starts perfectly. Adobe really has to fix things like this.

Here’s how I fixed the problem:

Here you will find the folder “configuration” … Rename this folder to ‘configurationOld’ and restart Dreamweaver

What this will do is force Dreamweaver to create that configuration folder again. Please note: this may not fix it for you and this solution has not even been mentioned by Adobe. Hope this helps you out!

I'm running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 with FileVault enabled. Design Premium CS 5.5 was installed and Photoshop and Flash worked fine on a standard account. Dreamweaver didn't however. I followed this forums suggestions to find the config files and none were there. In the end I didn't want to wait around so I just set my standard account to be able to admin the system (System Preferences) and now DW works.

Not ideal solution, of course, since it makes sense to have the standard account for work related stuff unconnected to an admin account; but until this gets resolved this overly obvious solution may help you get web designing again quickly